A drug driver from Cowes who ran away from Police when he was stopped in his Ford Fiesta has been banned from driving for 12 months.
28-year-old William Appell, of Highfield Road in Cowes, was pulled over on Fairlee Road, Newport on 23rd October last year.
Ann Smout, prosecuting, told the court that officers noted a smell of cannabis but before they could drugs test Appell he ran off into the dark.
It didn’t take long for Police to detain the 28-year-old scaffolder, who then went on to provide a positive drugs wipe. Further tests revealed the presence of cocaine and cannabis.
Oscar Vincent, defending, said that his client had not taken drugs that day but had consumed a small amount of drugs at a party 24 hours beforehand. Mr Vincent said that Appell was driving home after running a few errands when he was stopped by Police, but that there was no evidence of bad driving.
The court also heard from Mr Vincent that Appell had not driven or consumed drugs since the incident.
Magistrates handed William Appell a 12-month driving ban and a 12-month community order with a 12-week evening curfew.
Serves you damn well right William Appell. No sympathy for you or anyone like you who thinks it’s ok to drive having taking any sort of drug, yes even cannabis.
I’m sure scaffolding and cocaine don’t mix very well
Well, you do not know many scaffolders then, do you !
Why did the police stop him anyway ?
I was under the impression that they need a valid reason to pull someone over nowadays, such as bad driving, no seat belt, speeding or no insurance m.o.t. etc.
Please correct me if I am wrong ?
See s163 road traffic Act
They probably could smell the car before they stopped it. These days they can make up any excuse to pull someone over. Whilst everyone were loosing their minds over a minor inconvenience of having to ware a mask in a shop the government were passing laws that allowed them to convict someone on their own land because they mite commit a crime in the future.